Symposium on “Housing: Law & Policy” to Feature Professors Ellickson and Glaeser

Symposium on “Housing: Law & Policy” to Feature Professors Ellickson and Glaeser

Published: September 16, 2010

The Notre Dame Law and Economics (NDL&E) Program will host its inaugural symposium: Housing: Law & Policy on Friday, September 17, 2010. The symposium, which will run from 2-5 p.m. in Eck Hall of Law, Room 1140, features two prominent scholars, each of whom will present a working paper on cutting-edge issues in housing law and housing policy.

At 2:00 p.m., Robert C. Ellickson of Yale Law School will present “Legal Constraints on Household Moves: Should Footloose Americans Envy the Rooted French?” (For a copy of Professor Ellickson’s paper, click here.) Then, at 3:30 p.m., Edward L. Glaeser of the Department of Economics at Harvard University will present “Can Cheap Credit Explain the Housing Boom?” (For a copy of Professor Glaeser’s paper, which is co-authored with Joshua D. Gottlieb, Ph.D. Candidate in Economics, Harvard University, and Professor Joseph Gyourko of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, click here.)

In response to Ellickson and Glaeser, Nicole Garnett of Notre Dame Law School and William Evans of the Notre Dame Economics Department will provide comments. Ellickson and Glaeser also will have an opportunity to comment on each other’s papers and respond to the ideas of the commentators and questions from the audience. Students from Notre Dame Law School and across the University, as well as faculty members from the law school, economics department, and elsewhere, are expected to participate in the discussion.

The symposium’s organizers, Notre Dame Law School Professors Margaret F. Brinig and Daniel B. Kelly, believe the topic is a timely one, especially given recent fluctuations in real estate markets, the continuing fall-out from the home mortgage crisis, and the renewed focus on the causes and consequences of household movements. They hope that these two papers, as well as the ensuing discussion, will provide an opportunity for a lively exchange on important issues.

Professor Brinig and Professor Kelly recently launched the NDL&E Program and are very excited about the inaugural symposium, part of the Garvey Lecture Series. According to Professor Brinig: “Though I’m not a property scholar, I’m very taken with the idea of expanding the boundaries of the classroom experience for students, for broadening the intellectual exchange at Notre Dame beyond the law school, and for engaging eminent scholars on topics of current interest. This symposium gives us a real opportunity to move forward on all these fronts.”

Professor Kelly agrees and adds: “We’re delighted to welcome Bob Ellickson and Ed Glaeser to Notre Dame. They were our top two choices for this symposium. I think our ability to attract scholars of the highest quality, like Bob and Ed, in order to discuss significant theoretical and empirical issues, like those involving housing and household moves, is a testament not only to the increasingly interdisciplinary focus of Notre Dame Law School but also the rapid rise of the new economics department here at Notre Dame."

About the Speakers

Robert C. Ellickson is the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Property and Urban Law at Yale Law School. In addition to Yale, he has taught on the law faculties of Stanford and USC and as a visiting professor at Harvard and Chicago. He teaches property, land use, and torts, and his major research interests include property, land use, housing, urban history, and social norms. Among his many notable books and articles are The Household: Informal Order Around the Hearth (Princeton University Press 2008), Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes (Harvard University Press 1991), and Property in Land, 102 YALELAWJOURNAL 1315 (1993). Before entering academia, Ellickson worked on a Presidential Committee on Urban Housing and for the homebuilding firm of Levitt & Sons. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a founding member and former President of the American Law and Economics Association.

Edward L. Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. At Harvard, in addition to teaching courses on a range of subjects including microeconomics theory and urban and social economics, he serves as Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. His research examines the economics of cities, and he has written numerous articles on urban issues, particularly the growth of cities, segregation, crime, the relationship between geographical proximity and innovation, and housing markets. In addition, Glaeser has authored several books, including most recently Cities Agglomeration and Spatial Equilibrium (Oxford University Press 2008), Housing Markets and the Economy: Risk, Regulation, and Policy (Lincoln Land Institute 2009), and The Economics of Agglomeration (forthcoming, University of Chicago Press). He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, where he also was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics.